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The U.S. Coast Guard was searching Saturday for a medical transport plane that disappeared while flying from Bermuda to Boston with six people on board, after air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft overnight.
The Federal Aviation Administration alerted the Coast Guard that it had lost contact with the plane, a Gulfstream G100, at around 2 a.m., according to a Coast Guard statement.
By 11:45 a.m., the search remained active off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, with the Coast Guard deploying fixed-wing aircraft, a helicopter and two boats, some launched from a station on Cape Cod.
The aircraft departed from Bermuda's only airport, on St. David's Island, at 11:41 p.m. Eastern time, according to flight-tracking data from FlightAware.
It had been cruising steadily at 24,000 feet before dropping several thousand feet around 1:05 a.m., a maneuver that aviation experts described as abnormal.
"I would say that indicates a significant problem," said Brad Wheeler, a retired commercial pilot with nearly four decades of experience who has flown the New York-to-Bermuda route.
Mary Schiavo, an aviation lawyer and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation, said the pattern suggested the crew was reacting to an emergency.
"It's clear they had something going wrong because they adjusted the speed just before the drop," she said. "They were responding to something."
The plane's last known position was well north of the stretch of ocean popularly known as the Bermuda Triangle, an area long associated with unexplained disappearances of ships and aircraft, though no connection to that lore has been established.
Bermuda, a self-governing British territory with a population of about 65,000, lies roughly 780 miles from Boston.
The missing plane was operated by Latitude Air Ambulance, an Ontario-based medical evacuation company, according to company spokesman Clarence Togeretz.
He confirmed Saturday that the aircraft was missing and said the company had notified search-and-rescue and law enforcement authorities, but declined to provide additional information about the flight.
Latitude's website describes a business that transports patients to hospitals and provides repatriation services. The company operates a fleet of 10 aircraft, including four Gulfstream G100s like the one that went missing.
Those planes are typically staffed with a nurse and a respiratory therapist and are equipped with intensive-care unit equipment; some flights also carry a physician.
It was not immediately clear whether all six people aboard were crew and medical staff or whether the flight was also carrying a patient.
Photographs of the aircraft show it painted mostly white with a black decal along the fuselage, a red "star of life" medical emblem on the tail, and a Canadian flag.
Records show the plane was manufactured in Israel in 1996 and had previously served as a private jet.
Flight records indicate it had made frequent trips in recent weeks, including another Bermuda-to-Boston flight on Sept. 24, several flights within Canada, and a round trip between Ontario and San Francisco.
The Government of Bermuda confirmed in a statement that the air ambulance, carrying six people, was reported missing after losing contact with air traffic control, and said it has been in touch with the families of those on board as well as with the foreign authorities coordinating the search.
Premier David Burt said in the statement, "My thoughts are with everyone on board and their families during this deeply worrying time. We are praying that all six people will be found safe, and we thank the search and rescue crews for their continuing efforts."
The government asked that the privacy of the families be respected and said it would release further information as it is confirmed.
The incident follows several fatal crashes involving medical transport planes in the United States in recent years.
A medical plane crashed in New Mexico during a short flight in May, killing four people.
In December, six people died when a Mexican Navy plane crashed into Galveston Bay in Texas. And in January 2025, a medical transport plane crashed near a shopping center in Philadelphia, killing all six people aboard and one person on the ground.
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